


Not as bad as it seems (except when it is)

by bmlhillenkeene



Category: Whitechapel (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mansell is not a dick, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-24
Updated: 2013-09-26
Packaged: 2017-12-27 12:35:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/978949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bmlhillenkeene/pseuds/bmlhillenkeene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erica and Emerson Kent tw: past abuse, tw: child abuse, tw: abuse recovery</p><p>Prompt backstory first! The Kent twins home life was incredibly abusive, mostly likely their father (since Erica mentions their mum in her first appearance I’m guessing they’re on speaking terms with her) They both struggled with the fall out of the abuse while they we kids/teens but finally found ways to begin to heal. I imagine Erica throwing herself into all the things that made her happy, becoming the outgoing person she’s implied to be, where as Emerson focused in on how to fix things, how to make this right etc (becoming the detail focused DC we love)<br/>Someone finds out about the abuse they suffered and the Kent sibling expects whoever finds out to be a dick about it, either making too light of what happened to them or suddenly treating them like they might suddenly break. But instead they person who finds out is fantastic about it, giving space when it’s needed, not pressuring but still there.</p><p>Gen or shippy I’m quite happy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I got insired by the above prompt. Hope you all enjoy!

Part 1

Kent stared at his hand, a look closer to shock than horror on his face, and by the time his head tipped back and his eyes came to rest on the already darkening bruise around Mansell's eye they had taken on a glassy quality.

"Hey, mate." Mansell said, reaching out. He'd been all too ready to give the little bastard a whaling for hitting him, but Kent's expression, coupled with the flinch that near sent him tumbling backwards into the hall, brought Mansell's police training to the fore, and just like he would any scared victim he stopped perfectly still and said in his most reassuring voice. "I'm just going to call your sister yeah?"

And he took a careful step back, giving Kent the space he so clearly needed to regroup and called Erica. She picked up after the first ring with a cheery "Hello?"

"Erica, You need to come home." Mansell said quietly.

"Finn? Why? What's wrong? Has someone broken in?"

"I came over to pick up my jacket, only Emerson was here and we had a bit of an arguement."

"That's all the both of you seem to be doing nowadays. I'm not surprised."

"Yeah well, he took a swing at me and blacked my eye and now he's-"

"Emerson HIT you?" Erica sounded worried suddenly, and Mansell knew it wasn't worry for him, and from the way Kent had slid down the wall during the conversation and buried his head in his hands he couldn't hold it against her. "I'll be right home."

"Anything I should avoid doing?" he asked.

"Don't loom." she informed him, and hung up.

So Mansell didn't loom, he squatted down beside Kent, not too close. "You ok mate?" he asked.

Kent heaved a shuddering breath and nodded. "Sorry." he forced out quietly, his voice cracking.

"Nothing to be sorry for. I'm sure I deserved it for something." Mansell told him with a small grin. It didn't have quite the effect he'd intended. Kent looked at him scandalised, eyes wide and there was the beginnings of some deeper rooted fear and horror there. And suddenly Kent was tripping over himself to tell Mansell that he hadn't deserved it, no one deserved it, but there was a hint in his voice, just a slight catch that told Mansell everything he needed to know, as if the rest of this whole thing wasn't damming enough.

He wondered how he hadn't noticed it before, but Kent was always just Kent, and Erica had been so well adjusted that he hadn't even realised. But suddenly a whole lot of things were beginning to make sense, and he didn't like the implications there at all.

But then Erica arrived, and Mansell bowed out gracefully, leaving his jacket for another day, and giving Erica the space she needed to comfort her clearly distraught twin.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

Emerson was waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

He was waiting for the jokes to start, for the questions, the looks. But all Mansell had done when anyone asked about his eye was laugh and say "Got into a bit of a scuffle with my mates."

He was wound up like a spring about to snap. Had been for a long time, since Erica had called him to tell him she was intending to move to Whitechapel to be closer to him. He loved his sister, he did. Which was why he'd stayed so far away from her and their mother. He'd transferred his feelings, his worry, his fear; channelled them into his work and he'd ended up driving a wedge between him and the DI.

And since Erica had actually moved in only streets away from him he'd been like a basket case. Oh, he'd managed to play it normal around her, but it seemed like everything else had suffered for it. The last few months he'd been like a powder keg just waiting to go off, and then he had, in spectacular fashion just the other day.

So he was waiting, waiting for Mansell to say something, watiting for everything to come crashing down around his ears.

"You staying here all night?" Mansells voice shook Emerson out of his thoughts and he realised ey were alone in the room.

Emerson eyed Mansell warily, wondering if the confrontation he'd been waiting for would be coming now. He'd expected Mansell to wait for an audience, but then, he'd been flying wide of the mark for a lot of things so far.

Mansell watched him in silence, and Emerson felt himself tense.

"I'm not like your father." Mansell said suddenly. "Or Erica's bastard ex-husband. Even if I do sleep around."

"I know." he said, and hated how his voice cracked.

Emerson had known Erica would have told him, would have tried to explain his behaviour to the other man. And he knew Mansell was nothing like his father, who had manipulated his mother, his sister and him, emotionally, driven insecurities into them that were still buried in deep, who had reinforced his iron clad rule over them with his fists. And for all his sleeping around, Mansell was noting like Erica's ex-husband, who had made her feel like she couldn't do anything right, who had taken other women into their bed while she cried herself to sleep in the spare room just down the hall, stopped from walking out by the same love their mother had had for their father, as much as by the lock the bastard had put on the door.

"You're nothing like your father either." Mansell continued, and when Emerson couldn't find any other words to say he said. "I'll see you tomorrow yeah? Erica's invited me over for Sunday dinner and said you'd be there." and with a small wave, Mansell left.

Emerson watched him leave, feeling adrift and confused. Where were the questions? The bad taste jokes? The kid gloves? The pitying looks? There had been none of these, not in all the days since he had lost his temper and had his subsequent breakdown. He began to mechanically pack up his things for the night, and his thoughts turned suddenly to what Mansell had said.

"You're notthing like your fathere either." If only words could fix things, the world would be a much better place. "You're nothing like dad Emy, nothing like him at all!" he wished he could believe his sisters claims, but everything that had been happening recently slanted against him. He switched off his desk lamp and stood in the darkened room.

The darkness madethe words that had been haunting him for months crowd in close

"Perhaps it's more you than you think"

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \----  
> I didn't want to leave it as all wrapped up neat, because I think Kent is having some serious problems in the new series and I wanted to tie my story into that. It sort of makes his seeing himself as a monster, and the way Morgans words affected him make more sense if he see's himself as turning into his father


End file.
